Back Judge the gift before gifting to a judge
D. Murali
| How far can US judges go while accepting gifts? The American Bar Association has decided to draw the line. |
GIFTED judges are our greatest gifts because they can resolve the toughest of problems. But things can turn tricky when judges get showered with gifts. Recently, the American Bar Association (www.abanet.org) decided to come out with draft proposals rewriting ethics rules for judges in the US.
Accordingly, the term `gift' has been added to the `terminology' section of the code of conduct for judges. Gift is defined as "any gratuity, favour, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or anything of monetary value." However, it excludes "ordinary social hospitality; trivial tokens of appreciation such as greeting cards, commemorative plaques et cetera; and loans, discounts, prizes, scholarships that judges receive for reasons generally unrelated to their being judges," as the site explains. No harm, therefore, if you send him a card saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"
The ABA has made a disclosure recommendation — that the judge publicly report gifts (other than a gift from a member of the judge's family) exceeding $250 in value "alone or in the aggregate with other gifts received from the same source in the same calendar year."
Draft rules mandate that a judge shall not solicit or accept, and shall urge members of the judge's family residing in the judge's household not to solicit or accept a gift from anyone. There are exceptions to this seemingly draconian stipulation. For instance, permitted gifts include those incident to a public testimonial; and "books, magazines, journals, audio-visual materials and other resource materials supplied by publishers or organisations on a complimentary basis for official use." Reading is good, and it is only getting better.
Again, it is all right for a judge and his "spouse or guest" to be invited "to attend without charge a widely attended event or a bar-related function or any activity devoted to the improvement of the law, the legal system or the administration of justice." Now, what is a `widely attended event'? 1,000 people? Or 5,000? No, the ABA explains it as "a convention, conference, symposium, forum, panel discussion, dinner, viewing, reception or similar event at which more than 25 persons are expected to attend." So few! I guess they won't add the caterers.
Gifts, awards or benefits that "could not reasonably be perceived as intended to influence the judge in the performance of judicial duties" are okay. What about gift from a relative or friend "for a special occasion, such as a wedding anniversary or birthday"? No problem, "if the gift is fairly commensurate with the occasion and the relationship." This must be tough, in practice, because you've to put relationship on the left pan, and gift on the right, of a scale.
Watch out, here is where the ABA tightens its grip. It approves of any other "individual gift valued at $50 or less, or series of gifts from the same source whose value in the aggregate does not exceed $150" but on two conditions: One, the donor is not "a lawyer, party or third person who has come before the judge, or a person or entity whose interests have come before the judge, within the preceding five years"; and two, the donor is not "a lawyer, party, or third person who is likely to come before the judge, or a person or entity whose interests are likely to come before the judge, in the foreseeable future."
A subtle check that covers the recent past and the future too.
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